A methodological framework for participatory processes in water resources management
Krywkow, Jörg (2009). A methodological framework for participatory processes in water resources management. PhD Thesis. Universiteit Twente: Twente. ISBN 978-90-365-2835. xviii, 144 pp.
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Document type: Dissertation
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| Abstract |
The EuropeanWater Framework Directive (WFD) is a norm-setting document for river basin management in the European Union. The requirements of article 14 refer to the early involvement of stakeholders (and the public) in decision making processes. The question is no longer whether or not stakeholder participation is useful in river basin management, but how to accomplish an effective and efficient collaboration among policy makers, experts and lay people. Well before the inception of this regulatory document much research has been undertaken to better understand the interaction among practitioners, researchers and stakeholders in the decision processes of water management projects. These research projects brought scientific insights together with stakeholder needs and the contemporary European policy agenda. The quality of research is for the most part high, the results are useful, and newly developed management approaches fulfil the requirements of the WFD. However, once the research projects are completed, and the practitioners move on to other activities, the applicability of this (often case-study-based) research comes into question. A multitude of guidebooks and best-practice documents have been published, but still many of these documents are not known to water managers across Europe, and they are sometimes difficult to comprehend and especially difficult to adapt to individual requirements.
The application of participatory methods in decision making processes has grown into a sophisticated ‘discipline’ that requires knowledge and experience to understand and apply. However, most water managers in Europe are not experts in the field of participatory management.
Furthermore, when attempting to implement participatory methods in water management, the dualism of case-study-specific requirements and a universally applicable methodology is a problem that practitioners frequently encounter. For example, crossboundary experiences are often not directly applicable or relevant. This thesis endeavours to overcome this problem, and to develop an approach that enables practitioners with little knowledge of participatory processes to select methods that are appropriate for the specific requirements of a local project.
For this purpose, a taxonomy of participatory methods has been developed that removes uncertain parameters within participatory methods and assigns them to two categories: 1) case study specific objectives such as achieving consensus, increasing support for the project or identifying new problems, and 2) local constraints of the specific water management effort such as budget limitations, available expertise or number and type of stakeholders. Local objectives as well as constraints of a particular project cannot be mechanistically transferred to other management projects, but must be determined in an analysis of the local context.
From social science, psychology, sociology and related disciplines as well as from case study research, a whole array of methods are available that can be applied to participatory processes. However, the applicability and impact of these methods on such a process is not always obvious to practitioners. For a selected number of methods a uniform set of implementation criteria in the form of a catalogue entry (a initial version of a catalogue was previously published) was developed. This way methods received a comparable set of parameters that relate to the specific limitations and requirements of a local case study. Furthermore, participatory methods were assigned to classes according to their goal-achieving properties. As a result, a typology was created that serves as a basis for further evaluation and selection procedures with the aim of designing, implementing and controlling participatory processes.
The taxonomy was operationalised in two ways: 1) a controlling approach that supports the evaluation and monitoring of ongoing processes, and 2) a decision approach to select methods for the planning and design of participatory processes. The controlling approach is based upon the assumption that methods are effective if goals are reached. However, in this research it is not the achievement of goals that is measured, but the intensity (or strength) of six parameters (activity, equality, transparency, power sharing, flexibility and reach). Similar to the taxonomy of methods, these intensity criteria are comparable parameters that are relevant for participatory processes in general. The intensity criteria are standardised parameters that can be applied to a multitude of objectives that may be related to classes of methods in the taxonomy. If one or more criteria are determined to be insufficiently intensive, conclusions may be drawn about the appropriate choice of (a class of) methods or an incorrect application of this method. In this way, midterm evaluation including feedback and corrections of an ongoing process are possible. The advantage is a transboundary comparability of cases, as well as the availability of control instruments that do not strictly require specific expertise as well as experience with controlling mechanisms. The intensities of criteria can be retrieved with a standardised set of questions that may be posed to practitioners, experts and especially stakeholders.
The taxonomy of methods as well as the controlling approach was applied in the InterReg project TRUST involving five case studies in three Western-European countries. All of the case studies had differentwater-related issues, constraints and objectives. The methodology as introduced above was a first version developed in close co-operation between scientists and water managers. Capacity building and transboundary learning were key issues of the case study work. The taxonomy together with evaluation and monitoring based upon intensity criteria enabled the water managers to compare approaches and discuss various issues in a ‘common language’. Towards the end of the case study analysis a ‘dependency phenomenon’ was discovered. Even after all capacity building activities that they had engaged in, water managers did not feel sufficiently competent to design a participatory process for a new project without the support of experts.
For this reason a ‘selection support system’ was developed that enables practitioners to select appropriate methods based upon their project goals as well as their local constraints. Based upon the taxonomy, an alignment scheme together with a decision tree walks practitioners through a process of excluding participatory methods that are not relevant for their local project, and the remaining methods are listed sequentially so that the skeleton for a participatory plan is generated. In this way potentially applicable and effective methods can be extracted from a large (and sometimes confusing) pool of methods that would otherwise be overwhelming for practitioners with little or no knowledge of the array of participatory methods at their disposal.
The motivation for developing this methodological framework is to support those practitioners who want to identify the most effective methods for their designated goals under specific local conditions and constraints. Moreover this approach dares to impose a uniform structure on a variety of participatory methods, while permitting sufficient flexibility for adaptation to local circumstances.
Future research is required in the development of a ‘support tool’ for designing and planning participatory processes in water resources management. Moreover, this methodological framework may then serve as a basis for the improved communication and accessibility of knowledge among scientists, stakeholders, practitioners and policy makers. The most effective implementation of this framework, however, requires a platform such as a web portal, where knowledge from all involved parties can be compiled, structured and made available for lay people, experts, managers and decision makers alike. |
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